No purpose future: Living our lives as children

Most Americans would be happy to pay taxes if they felt they got a return on their payment. Our government has failed miserably to deliver the basics when it comes to maintaining or improving our infrastructure, but they can damn well fund the military to no end. Has what the average taxpayer paid to Uncle Sam for the military since 9/11 paid for itself? Do we really think a wall will pay off?

The USS Ronald Reagan (CV-76) one of the newest and most expensive aircraft carriers when it was home-ported at North Island, San Diego, CA

Our taxes seem to go toward funding our paranoia, which I find deeply troubling. Meanwhile, we think “healthcare” is just code for welfare and even if it was, why are we willing to rebuild nations we destroy while we allow our own citizens to go without care?

Why is it in this nation, 80 to 90 percent of the money spent on healthcare goes toward the final two years of life? What sense does that make? How we treat our young, our sick, and our elderly says more about us as humans than whether or not we build more aircraft carriers or bail out Wall Street.

One-third of Americans’ money vanished as a result of the crash of 2008 and no one goes to prison. Think about that. Think what that money could have done for people struggling to make ends meet? CEO’s took the government bailout and gave themselves fat raises while thousands of hard working citizens lost their homes, their jobs, and hope. What kind of government allows this and claims to have the best interest of its citizens at heart?

I am not as progressive as a Bernie supporter, however, I do believe a nation as wealthy as ours stands to gain far more by doing everything it can to help everyone succeed. College or trade schools should not leave people in debt. The more we invest in people to help them succeed, the less we pay to keep them incarcerated or on public assistance.

Recently I watched Mark Cuban answer a question about the recent jobs report. He went on to explain about the future of the American work force and claimed one third to one half of these “new” jobs that are making the unemployment figures drop now will not be around in five years because of how fast we are moving toward artificial intelligence and robotics. R2D2 and C3PO will be doing the bulk of our labor soon.

Top-3 killing it in ping-pong

What are we going to do when 300 million people are out of work? If you have a problem with welfare and other forms of public assistance now, wait until you find yourself in need of it because you have been replaced by some droid that can work non-stop and doesn’t need healthcare, let alone a salary.

What value will human life have if there becomes no incentive to learn and grow as a person? As it is now, college is a path toward finding oneself and hopefully land a decent start to a nice career. Take away our jobs and there becomes no need for colleges. Take away our colleges and there becomes no need for public education. Take away public education and all that is left is one long life of childhood.

Maybe then, every day will be St. Patrick’s Day and we can just become raging alcoholics.

Photos from Wikipedia
Top photo: If you think your office job is safe, meet Baxter, an industrial robot developed by Rodney Brooks

About the author

Jim is a life long resident of California and retired school teacher with 30 years in public education. Jim earned his BA in History from CSU Chico in 1981 and his MA in Education from Azusa Pacific University in 1994. He is also the author of Teaching The Teacher: Lessons Learned From Teaching. Jim considers himself an equal opportunity pain in the ass to any political party, group, or individual who looks to profit off of hypocrisy. When he is not pointing out the conflicting words and actions of our leaders, the NFL commissioner, or humans in general, he can be found riding his bike for hours on end while pondering his next article. Jim recently moved to Camarillo, CA after being convinced to join the witness protection program. Contact the author.